The present invention relates to imaging devices and, more particularly, to high-dynamic-range imaging systems.
Image sensors are commonly used in electronic devices such as cellular telephones, cameras, and computers to capture images. In a typical arrangement, an electronic device is provided with an image sensor having an array of image pixels and a corresponding lens. Some electronic devices use arrays of image sensors and arrays of corresponding lenses.
In certain applications, it may be desirable to capture high-dynamic range images. While highlight and shadow detail may be lost using a conventional image sensor, highlight and shadow detail may be retained using image sensors with high-dynamic-range imaging capabilities.
Common high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging systems use an interleaved exposure image capture method. In the interleaved exposure method, interleaved images are captured having rows of long-exposure image pixel values are interleaved with rows of short-exposure image pixel values. The short-exposure and long-exposure image pixel values are typically interpolated using edge-based interpolation in which pixel values are interpolated along a direction of maximum pixel correlation.
When generating HDR images using conventional edge-based interpolation methods, conventional imaging systems can misidentify edges in a captured image, which can result in undesirable artifacts in the final HDR image.
It would therefore be desirable to provide improved systems and methods for interleaved high-dynamic-range imaging.